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Riddle: Who Am I?

I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden.

I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.

I am completely at your command.

Half the things you do might just as well be turned over to me

and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed – you must merely be firm with me.

Show me exactly how you want something done;

and after a few lessons I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great individuals and, alas, of all failures as well.

Those who are great, I have made great.

Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision

of a machine, plus the intelligence of a human.

You may run me for profit or run me for ruin – it makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet.

Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I?

I am called Habit.

-Anonymous

Habits, once created, can be one’s best friend. Some people believe they weren’t “born organized” and therefore will never be organized.  The good news is that being organized is a LEARNED skill and gets easier when practiced.  It becomes even easier when the skills become HABITS.

What kind of habits?

– PUTTING THINGS AWAY instead of putting them down

– Keeping “LIKE” THINGS TOGETHER near where you use them

– ASSIGNING HOMES FOR EVERYTHING in order to find them easily

– Assessing WHAT’S IMPORTANT, rather than what’s urgent or feels good

Carve out a bit of time each day to work on making a desired process a habit.  Yes, it requires self discipline in the beginning, but before long it will become, as the riddles states, your constant companion and greatest helper!

Finding the motivation to de-clutter one’s home and maintain “order in the house” can be challenging for clutter-bugs and busy people.  Some are motivated when they are tired of being embarrassed; others are moved to action by nagging spouses or the arrival of company.  Working away from what you don’t want can be inspiring but the effects are not always long lasting.

Working toward what you want produces greater inspiration and longer-lasting results.  How, exactly, do you work toward what you want?  Simply through visualizing what you want and noting how you feel.  Let’s try it out:

Get comfortable, relax and close your eyes.  Focus on your breathing for a moment.  Picture yourself walking into your home – not your house as it is now, but rather your IDEAL HOME.  What does the first room look like?  Is it clutter-free and redecorated?  Look in the closets, cabinets and drawers – what do they look like?  Notice how you feel when you’re in your ideal room.  Do you feel calm, peaceful and confident?  Take a mental snapshot of the room for future reference.  Continue to tour your home, one room at a time.  How does it look?  How do you feel?  Take mental snapshots as you go.

Now notice how you IDEALLY OPERATE in your de-cluttered home.  Do you clean up without effort, gliding through your home every morning and evening, putting items back to their assigned homes?  Perhaps someone else handles these chores in your ideal world.  Do you juggle your responsibilities with ease?  Are you aware of what needs to get done?  Do you prioritize with clarity, delegate with ease and float from one task to another while “in the zone”?  How do you feel as you easily manage your time and tasks?  Preserve this image in your mind’s eye.

Come back to earth!  If you’re like most people, you found the visualization to be calming and inspiring.  You know what you’d like your home to look like and you know how you’d like to be in it.  You now have a photo gallery of visualized rooms and a mental video tape of a way of behaving.

Use these visualization tools to inspire action and keep going.  If you’re sorting your clutter and start to feel overwhelmed, stop, go within and look at your mental photos to remember how calm and empowered you felt in a home that nurtures you instead of one that drains you.  Face your clutter again and ask yourself if it fits in with your vision of your IDEAL home.  If it doesn’t, let it go and enjoy the resulting lightness of being.